1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cleaning mortar from used bricks and the like.
2. Discussion of Background
Used bricks and the like from demolished buildings can be reused if the mortar is removed from them. Used bricks are esthetically desirable in newly-built homes designed in a traditional style or in reconstruction of older homes. Buyers of used, cleaned bricks pay up to five times the price of new bricks. Alternatively, the cost of disposing of used bricks can be substantial, thus further encouraging cleaning and reuse.
Brick cleaning is generally done by hand and is hard work. An experienced brick cleaner can clean about one brick per minute but with significant breakage. Furthermore, hand cleaned bricks are not uniform and are harder to work with in construction. There are machines for cleaning bricks, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,246 to Seeley and U.S. Pat. No. Re. 26,868 of La Belle, et al. The Seeley machine has a conveyor belt with spaced dogs for moving individual bricks between spaced, toothed sprockets. The LaVelle et al. machine has toothed rolls that turn in one direction and abrasive rolls that turn in an opposing direction to clean bricks that move along on a conveyor belt.
These machines have a great many moving parts which can become jammed with bricks and crumbled mortar pieces. Both rely on an operator to feed individual bricks onto a conveyer. These machines do not easily accommodate bricks of varying sizes or hand made bricks. These problems and others, and the need for efficient brick cleaning machines, require or consider desirable a used brick cleaning machine that is simple and rugged, accommodates bricks of varying sizes, even at the same time, that thoroughly cleans the mortar from the bricks and can receive a stack of bricks at a one time.